By Alex Johnson. The reading-speed research I cite on our word count pages kept showing up in search by name, which told me people want the number applied to their own book or report. This calculator does that, and it can time your own reading too.
Reading speed is one of the better-measured things in psychology. In 2019, Marc Brysbaert of Ghent University pooled 190 studies covering 18,573 readers and found that adults read English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction. Those averages turn any page count into a fairly reliable time, as long as you know roughly how many words sit on a page.
⚡ Quick answer: A 300-page novel takes about 4 hours 50 minutes to read at average speed, or about 10 days at 30 minutes a day. 100 pages takes about 1 hour 35 minutes. 1,000 words takes about 4 minutes to read silently and 5 minutes aloud.
Reading time calculator
Runs in your browserRead a 226-word passage at your normal pace, the way you would read a book, not a skim. Press start, read it once, then press done.
The first public libraries in many towns were not buildings at all. They were a single shelf in a shop, a trunk of books that travelled from village to village, or a cupboard in a church hall that opened on Saturday mornings. People borrowed a book, kept it for a week or two and brought it back, often with a note tucked inside for the next reader. Some of those notes were practical, pointing out a missing page or a recipe that did not work. Others were small reviews, written in pencil on the inside cover, arguing with the author or with the reader before. Over time the shelves grew into rooms and the rooms into buildings with tall windows and long tables. The habit at the centre stayed the same. A person chose something to read, sat with it for a while and carried it home. Reading speed never mattered much in those rooms. A slow reader who finished a book and remembered it got more from the loan than a fast reader who skimmed and forgot. Still, it helps to know your pace when you plan. If you know how many words you read in a minute, you can tell whether a report will take ten minutes or an hour, and whether the novel on your nightstand will last a week or a month.
How long does it take to read 100, 300 or 500 pages?
The table assumes 250 words per page. The last column is the number of days to finish a novel reading 30 minutes a day.
| Pages | Fiction | Non-fiction | Days at 30 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 50 min | 55 min | 2 |
| 100 | 1 hr 35 min | 1 hr 45 min | 4 |
| 150 | 2 hr 25 min | 2 hr 40 min | 5 |
| 200 | 3 hr 10 min | 3 hr 30 min | 7 |
| 250 | 4 hr | 4 hr 25 min | 9 |
| 300 | 4 hr 50 min | 5 hr 15 min | 10 |
| 400 | 6 hr 25 min | 7 hr | 13 |
| 500 | 8 hr | 8 hr 45 min | 17 |
| 1,000 | 16 hr | 17 hr 30 min | 33 |
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
For articles, reports and speeches, word count is the better starting point. Silent reading uses the non-fiction average of 238 words per minute; reading aloud uses 183.
| Words | Silently | Aloud |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | 2 min | 3 min |
| 1,000 | 4 min | 5 min |
| 2,000 | 8 min | 11 min |
| 3,000 | 13 min | 16 min |
| 5,000 | 21 min | 27 min |
| 10,000 | 40 min | 55 min |
Where the reading speeds come from
Brysbaert’s review, published in the Journal of Memory and Language, set out to replace an older and widely repeated figure of 300 words per minute. Pooling the studies gave lower and more consistent numbers: 238 words per minute for non-fiction, 260 for fiction and 183 for reading aloud, based on 77 studies of oral reading. Fiction runs a little faster because the vocabulary is more familiar and the sentences carry less dense information.
The spread between readers is real. Most adults read non-fiction at 175 to 300 words per minute and fiction at 200 to 320, which is why the calculator shows a typical range next to the average. If you read noticeably faster or slower than most people, the Test my speed button gives you a personal figure in about a minute.
How many words are on a page?
Page counts are where reading estimates go wrong. Barringer Publishing puts a typeset 6 by 9 inch book page in 11 or 12-point serif type at about 250 words, which is the calculator’s default. Real books vary around that figure. Large-print editions, children’s books and novels heavy on dialogue fit fewer words on a page. Academic books with small type and narrow margins can fit far more.
If you have the book in front of you, count the words on three full lines, divide by three, and multiply by the number of lines on a page. Enter that as the words-per-page figure. For school documents rather than books, a double-spaced page is also about 250 words and a single-spaced page about 500, which the words to pages calculator explains in detail.
How to test your reading speed
- Press Test my speed in the calculator, then Start reading
- Read the 226-word passage once at the pace you would read a book. Don’t skim and don’t reread
- Press Done reading. The calculator divides the word count by your time
- Press Use this speed to apply your result to the page or word count above
One short passage gives a rough figure. Run the test two or three times and use the middle result. Speed reading claims of 1,000 words per minute or more come with a drop in understanding, so the calculator is built around comfortable, full-comprehension reading.
Reading time for speeches and presentations
Reading a text aloud to an audience is slower than reading it to yourself, and speakers usually slow down further for emphasis and pauses. The 183 words per minute figure above is a fluent reading pace. For a presentation, the speech length calculator uses speaking paces of 110 to 160 words per minute instead. To plan the other side of the job, the writing time calculator estimates how long a draft will take to write.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to read 300 pages?
About 4 hours 50 minutes for a novel at the average fiction reading speed of 260 words per minute, assuming 250 words per page. A 300-page non-fiction book takes about 5 hours 15 minutes at 238 words per minute. At 30 minutes a day, that is about 10 to 11 days.
How long does it take to read 100 pages?
About 1 hour 35 minutes for fiction, or about 1 hour 45 minutes for non-fiction, at average adult reading speeds and 250 words per page.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes reading silently at 238 words per minute, or about 5 minutes reading aloud at 183 words per minute.
What is the average reading speed?
A 2019 review of 190 studies found adults read English silently at about 238 words per minute for non-fiction and 260 for fiction. Most adults fall between 175 and 300 words per minute for non-fiction.
How many words are on a page of a book?
About 250 on a typical 6 by 9 inch printed book page set in 11 or 12-point type. Large print, wide margins and lots of dialogue mean fewer words per page; dense academic books can carry more. Change the words-per-page box in the calculator to match your book.
How long does it take to read 5,000 words?
About 21 minutes silently at 238 words per minute, or about 27 minutes reading aloud.
Time any book, article or report
Pages, words or pasted text, at your own reading speed.
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